CHAP. CHAPTER VIII. I. COLET PREACHES AGAINST THE CONTINENTAL WARS- IF Colet returned to his pulpit after a narrow escape of being burned for heresy, it was to continue to do A.D. 1512. his duty, and not to preach in future only such sermons as might escape the censure of his bishop. His honesty and boldness were soon again put to the test. Continental wars. It was in the summer of 1512 that Henry VIII. for the first time mingled the blood of English soldiers in those Continental wars which now for some years became the absorbing object of attention. European rulers had not yet accepted the modern notion of territorial sovereignty. Instead of looking upon themselves as the rulers of nations, living within the settled boundaries of their respective countries, they still thirsted for war and conquest, and dreamed of universal dominion. To how great an extent this was so, a glance at the ambitious schemes of the chief rulers of Europe at this period will show. How Pope Julius II. was striving to add temporal to spiritual sovereignty, and desired to be the lord and 'master of the game of the world,' has been already noticed in mentioning how it called forth the satire of Erasmus, in his Praise of Folly.' This warlike Pope CHAP. VIII. was still fighting in his old age. Side by side with Pope Julius was Cæsar Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, King of the Romans, Emperor of Germany, A.D. 1512. &c.-fit representative of the ambitious House of Hapsburg! Not contented with all these titles and dominions, Maximilian was intriguing to secure by marriages the restoration of Hungary and Bohemia, and the annexation of the Netherlands, Franche-Compté, and Artois, as well as of Castile and Arragon, to the titles and possessions of his royal house. And what he could not secure by marriages he was trying to secure by arms. Had his success equalled his lust of dominion, east and west would have been united in the one Holy Empire' of which he dreamed, independent even of Papal interference, and hereditary for ever in the House of Hapsburg. Then there was Louis XII., the Most Christian' King of France, laying claim to a great part of Italy, pushing his influence and power so far as to strike terror into the minds of other princes; assuming to himself the rank of the first prince in Christendom; his chief minister aspiring to succeed Julius II. in the Papal chair; his son Francis ready to become a candidate for the Empire on the death of Maximilian. And, lastly, there was Henry VIII. of England, eager to win his spurs, and to achieve military renown at the first opportunity; reviving old obsolete claims on the crown of France; ready to offer himself as a candidate for the Empire when it became vacant, and to plot to secure the election of Wolsey to the Papal chair! Throw all these rival claims and objects of ambition into a wild medley, consider to what plots and counterplots, leagues and breaches of them, all this vast entanglement of interests and ambitions must give CHAP. A.D. 1512. First English expedition. Its complete failure. rise, and some faint idea may be gained of the state of European politics. Already in December 1511, a Holy Alliance had been formed between Pope Julius, Maximilian, Ferdinand, and Henry VIII., to arrest the conquests and humble the ambition of Louis XII. How the clergy had been induced to tax themselves in support of this holy enterprise has already been seen. Parliament also had granted a subsidy of two fifteenths and tenths, and had made some needful provision for the approaching war. Everything was ready, and in the summer of 1512 the first English expedition sailed. Ferdinand persuaded Henry VIII. to aid him in attacking Guienne, and all unused to the stratagems of war, he fell into the snare. While his father-in-law was playing his selfish game, and reducing the kingdom of Navarre, Henry's fleet and soldiers were left to play their part alone. The whole expedition, owing to delays and gross mismanagement, wofully miscarried. There were symptoms of mutiny and desertion; and at length the English army returned home utterly demoralised, and in the teeth of their commands. The English flag was disgraced in the eyes of Europe. French wits wrote biting satires 'De Anglorum e Galliis Fugâ,' and in bitter disappointment Henry VIII., to avoid further disgrace, was obliged to hush up the affair, allowing the disbanded soldiers to return to their homes without further inquiry. It was in vain that More replied to the French wits with epigram for epigram, correcting their exaggerated satire, and turning the tables upon their own nation. He laid the 1 1 Philomorus, p. 71. 2 See Brewer, i. preface p. xl. et seq., and authorities there cited. 3 In Brixium Germanum falsa scribentem de Chordigera.' 'In 'eundem Versus excerpti e Chordi CHAP. foundation of a controversy by which he was annoyed in after-years, and did little at the time to remove the general feeling of national disgrace which resulted from A.D. 1512. this first trial of Henry VIII. at the game of war. preaches the war. Meanwhile Colet, ever prone to speak out plainly Colet what he thought, had publicly from his pulpit expressed against his strong condemnation of the war. And the old Bishop of London, ever lying in wait, like the persecuting Pharisees of old, to find an occasion of evil against him, eagerly made use of this pretext to renew the attempt to get him into trouble. He had failed to bring down upon the Dean the terrors of ecclesiastical authority, but it would answer his purpose as well if he could provoke against him royal displeasure. He therefore informed the King, now eagerly bent upon his Continental wars, that Colet had condemned them; that he had publicly preached, in a sermon, that an unjust peace was 'to be preferred before the justest war.' While the Bishop was thus whispering evil against him in the royal car, others of his party were zealously preaching up the war, and launching out invectives against Colet and the poets,' as they designated those who were suspected of preferring classical Latin and Greek to the blotterature,' as Colet called it, of the monks. By these means they appear to have hoped to bring Colet into disgrace, and themselves into favour, with the King. 6 But it would seem that they watched and waited in 'gera Brixi;'' Postea de eadem which resulted from the publication СНАР. VIII. vain for any visible sign of success. The King appeared strangely indifferent alike to the treasonable preaching A.D. 1512. of the Dean and to their own effervescent loyalty. The King supports Colet against his enemies. Unknown to them, the King sent for Colet, and privately encouraged him to go on boldly reforming by his teaching the corrupt morals of the age, and by no means to hide his light in times so dark. He knew full well, he said, what these bishops were plotting against him, and also what good service he had done to the British nation both by example and teaching. And he ended by saying, that he would put such a check upon the attempts of these men, as would make it clear to others that if anyone chose to meddle with Colet it would not be with impunity! Upon this Colet thanked the King for his kind intentions, but, as to what he proposed further, beseeched him to forbear. He had no wish,' he said, 'that any ' one should be the worse on his account; he had rather resign his preferment than it should come to that.'1 II. COLET'S SERMON TO HENRY VIII. (1513). The spring of 1513 was spent by Henry VIII. in energetic preparations for another campaign, in which campaign. he hoped to retrieve the lost credit of his arms. Preparations for another The young King, in spite of his regard for better counsellors, was intent upon warlike achievements. His first failure had made him the more eager to rush into the combat again. Wolsey, the only man amongst the war-party whose energy and tact were equal to the emergency, found in this turn of affairs the stepping-stone to his 1 Eras. Op. iii. pp. 460, 461. See | Basle, 1517, Oct. And Cresacre's 'also Richardi Pacei... de Fructu More's Life of More, App. qua ex doctrina percipitur, liber.' |